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Gender segregation in the Swedish labour market
Historical, Sociological and Rational Choice institutionalism as tools for understanding inequality and why it still exists
Autumn 2010 Author: Hedvig Stenmark
Tutor: Lars Niklasson
Word count: 16680
LIU-IEI-FIL-A—11/00894--SE
Linköping University
Department of management and engineering (IEI)
Political Science
Master Thesis
2
Abstract
There is a wide spread discrimination between the genders at the Swedish labour market.
Women get lower wages, their skills are undervalued compared to men, it is harder for
women to advance, they are more likely to involuntary do part time jobs and they usually end
up in the least qualified and stimulating jobs. The governmental policy seems affectless and
companies are unable or unwilling to change. Historical, sociological and rational choice
institutionalism can offer an explanation to the problem. The segregation has historical roots
that go back to the early days of industrialisation when women entered the labour market with
working conditions that were worse than men‟s. Because of the conservatory character of
institutions, the perceptions of the genders have been reproduced until today. The conclusion
is that what the government does is less important than the fact that it does anything since the
institutions are working to conserve the current order.
3
Table of contents
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 5
1.1 The puzzle ........................................................................................................................................ 7
1.2 Methods ............................................................................................................................................ 7
1.3 Material ............................................................................................................................................. 8
1.4 Disposition ....................................................................................................................................... 9
2. GENDER DIVISION ............................................................................................... 9
2.1 Segregation ...................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Job flexibility .................................................................................................................................. 10
2.3 Job enrichment and job enlargement ......................................................................................... 11
2.4 On the big man's ladder ................................................................................................................ 12
2.5 Skills ............................................................................................................................................... 13
2.6 Wage differences ........................................................................................................................... 14
3. INSTITUTIONALISM ............................................................................................ 15
3.1 Rational Choice institutionalism .................................................................................................. 16 3.1.1 Gender inequalities according to rational choice institutionalism ............................................ 16
3.2 Sociological institutionalism ........................................................................................................ 17 3.2.1 Sociological institutionalism and the gender issue .................................................................. 18
3.3 Historical institutionalism ............................................................................................................ 20 3.3.1 Fordism emerging- a historical presentation of the institutionalisation of discrimination ......... 21 3.3.2 Fordism in Sweden .................................................................................................................. 23 3.3.3 Political-economic strategy ...................................................................................................... 24 3.3.3.1 The regulationist approach .................................................................................................... 25 3.3.3.2 Flexible specialisation theory ................................................................................................ 26 3.3.4 Neo-Fordism and Post-Fordism ............................................................................................... 28
4. INSTITUTIONS, POST-FORDISM AND GENDER SEGREGATION ................... 30
4.1 Institutional deficits ....................................................................................................................... 30
4.2 Current political strategy .............................................................................................................. 30
4.3 Is political change possible? ....................................................................................................... 32
5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 33
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 35
Literature .............................................................................................................................................. 35
4
Public print ........................................................................................................................................... 37
Internet sources ................................................................................................................................... 37
5
1. Introduction
Gender perceptions affect all aspects of life. They affect how much attention you get in
school, your possibilities for a career, if you wash the car or the dishes and what wage you
will get. They affect what traits of your personality and what skills you evolve, the
expectations of what you will do and who you will be. They affect what colours your allowed
to wear and what sports you can practice, what friends you will have; they even decides if it is
acceptable for you to cry or not. The gender and the perceptions connected to it affect all
aspects of life and that is why inequality has become such an important issue.
In the early days of industrialisation, men's struggle for citizenship rights concerned the right
to a limitation of work, which means free time and holidays. Women's struggle was different
from men's since they were fighting for the right to paid work.1 Women were excluded from
paid work and were seen as second class citizens when the modern labour market emerged.
As they got access to paid work women were paid less because they had a husband to support
them anyway, they were side stepped at promotions because male breadwinners needed it
more and they were not considered suitable for many jobs. Women were excluded from work
rights legislation and we can still see the effects of this in the labour market of today.2
Women are working as much in the public sector as in the private one, while men are more
often working in the private sector. Women are often working with caring, administration,
cleaning, service jobs and preschool teachers. Electricians and technicians are usually male,
as well as the ones working in transportation or construction. Accountants, doctors and chefs
are three examples of work where the representation of the genders is somewhat equal.3 Jobs
dominated by women usually have the lowest pay increase. The incentives to mix the genders
are in general not very strong since a woman will make at lot less than her male colleagues if
she enters a male dominated sector. The wages for men are lower in female dominated sectors
compared to what they would earn in male dominated ones, even if they are better than their
female co-workers, so there is little encouragement for the men considering entering these
sectors.4
The differences mentioned above have had a big effect on how the Swedish labour market is
organised; Sweden has been described as one of the most equal countries in the world, and
one the most gender segregated labour markets. Gender segregation is when men and women
end up in different sectors and jobs. Gender labelling is when a job or the tasks are classified
as male or female, it can be the prejudice the recruiter have about what gender you should
have to apply for a certain job.5 The problem with segregation based on gender is that people
cannot get the job where they would perform their best and the labour is not as efficient as it
could have been, since an excellent female truck driver might not get the job because the
employer thinks that a woman cannot drive. Different wage and bonus development, as well
as the prospects of promotion, are direct effects of a gender segregated labour market.6 The
1 Laufer, Jaqueline Introduction to part IV public sphere, private sphere: the issue of women's rights in Jenson,
Laufer & Maruani edt. 2000 The gendering of inequalities: women, men and work Ashgate, Hampshire p.236 2 SOU 2004:43 p.32
3 Statistics Sweden, Women and men in Sweden 2008 p.62-64
4 Gonäs, Lena På gränsen till genombrott? : om det könsuppdelade arbetslivet Agora, Stockholm 2005 p.139,
p.148 5 Gonäs 2005 p.147
6 SOU 2004:43 p.21-22
6
term doing gender describes how inherited discriminating gender perceptions are constantly
recreated by sorting the genders into different sectors and jobs, the divergence in wages and
work is conserved through these mechanisms.7
The Reinfeldt government has as a policy that promote equality in every part of society, all
decisions should be analysed from a gender perspective so men and women can eventually
have the same social and economical rights which includes the rights at work.8 The
government presented in June 2009 a governmental bill, Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198
En jämställd arbetsmarknad- regeringens strategi för jämställdhet på arbertsmarknaden och i
näringslivet, containing a strategy for how to tackle inequality at the labour market. This bill
states that there need to be long term commitments on all areas and all governmental units
should co-ordinate the strategies in the mission of creating equality. The government want to
change the norms that create the differences in power and resources for individuals and on a
societal level.9 The bill acknowledges that the reason the gender differences exist is because
of reproduction of traditional and stereotype values of what is appropriate work.10
The bill,
together with a presentation of what the government has been doing for the last four years,
För ett jämställt Sverige, Regeringens politik 2007-2010, can be viewed as a summary of the
equality policy.
The government has been making efforts to improve selected labour oriented areas as the
power division between the genders, economic equality and more even division of domestic
work.11
To get more women to work, the government have introduced a work tax credit where
the ones who earn the least will profit the most. Since women in general earn less than men,
this will help them increase their income. It suggested introducing limitations on part time
unemployment social support, which will make full time employment more attractive so there
will be pressure on employers to offer full time jobs.12
The government is making it easier for
female entrepreneurs by supplying consultation, capitalist venture and business development
to make it more attractive for women to run companies.13
It also wants more women on
boards and in management and has started a program where women get mentors that will
guide them through the difficulties of management.14
Other political tools that have had an
effect on inequality are individual taxation, parental insurance and enlargement of child
care.15
The government also abolished the equality ombudsman and replaced it with a
discrimination ombudsman.
Anne-Marie Morhed is a sociologist who has been working with a public inquiry on gender
segregation commissioned by the Swedish government that resulted in SOU 2010:7,
presented in February 2010. The assignment was to investigate if the active measures
promoting equality in the discrimination law have had any effect. The results presented were
quite disheartening. The measures demanding an effort to improve equality in companies has
been proved not to work. The tools used to promote equality have little, if any, effect and the
strategies are not adjusted to reality and instead of fixing the problem with segregation, the
7 SOU 2010:7 p.71-72
8 Statistics Sweden, Women and men in Sweden 2008 p.13
9 Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 En jämställd arbetsmarknad- regeringens strategi för jämställdhet på
arbertsmarknaden och i näringslivet p.4 10
Ibid p.7 11
För ett jämställt Sverige, Regeringens politik 2007-2010 p.6 12
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.37-38 13
För ett jämstält Sverige p.14-15 14
Ibid p.9, Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.35-36 15
SOU 2010:7 p.67
7
equality policy has made gender differences invisible as the traits of segregation changed.16
The word gender can refer to the biological body as well as a social constuction. In this thesis,
the second definition will be used since the actions of men and women are results of
encouragement or condemption from the surroundings. The words equality and inequality will
be used to describe a relation between men and women.
1.1 The puzzle
Efficiency is one of the key words in industrial production. Traditional work division between
what is seen as male and female work has a limiting effect on individual career choices and
skills are not located where they are needed the most. This limits innovations and growth,
which is obviously a problem. Also, half of the population is treated as second class citizens
just because they happened to be born with the 'wrong' sex. It seem like every part of society
will benefit from equality, both economically and socially. Still it seems to be almost
impossible to fix it. Why is it so hard to get an equal labour market? What can politics do
different? What effect have institutions had on the outcome of the gender equality policy?
This thesis is inspired by Morhed. It will investigate the Swedish labour market and why it is
so difficult for the policy to achieve equality. Further, it will investigate the historical
industrial process to find an explanation to how the gender segregation on the labour market
came to be, why it still exists and what mechanisms working today are preventing, or helping,
the equality policies to succeed. Morhed is focusing on the social part of the problem, she
sees discrimination as a discourse. The thesis will provide a theoretical explanation to
Morhed's conclusions and complement her analysis with historical and rational choice
institutionalism to provide a better understanding of the inequalities.
1.2 Methods
Qualitative text analysis is the method used in this thesis. Three main areas has been in focus
for the investigation; gender segregation on the labour market, institutional theory and
Fordism/ Post-Fordism. They are analyzed together to present new perspectives on the
problem with gender segregation. The benefits of using other scientists‟ material is that it is
time saving and knowledge is accumulated. The risk with the method is that faults appearing
in earlier stages might be reproduced. This risk has been limited by using muliple sources that
can criticise each other to get a more diversified picture and more corrrect results.
In implementation theory, there are two main directions, the top-down approach which is
focusing on the implementation through the bureaucracy and the bottom-up approach which
is focusing on the receiver of the policy. The perspective chosen is a bottom-up approach
since the industrial production and the footprints it have left on society will be the object of
the study. According to Michael Hill, actors choose different strategies when facing
problems.17
The bottom-up perspective is focused on the empirical outcome of the idealised
picture the decision makers what to achieve when a change is initiated. Hill is also discussing
the difference between policy implementation and successful implementation, the bottom-up
approach is focusing on why implementation is successful or not. The outcome of
16
SOU 2010:7 p.11-18 17
Hill, Michael Policyprocessen Malmö, Liber 2007 p.190
8
implementation should be studied instead of how to control implementation so it is done the
right way.18
Morhed is using a bottom-up approach, she concludes that the problem within the
company, which includes both employers and employees, is that they cannot see the
segregation that is not quantified in statistics. Most people think they are equal even if
research shows that discrimination exists even if it is hidden. If discrimination cannot be seen
by the actors, they cannot see the use of implementing an equality policy.19
The policy and the
companies have different perceptions of the extent of the problem and when one part do not
understand what the other one means, it is hard to get a successful implementation.
1.3 Material
For describe the gender segregation on the labour market, the thesis is using Morhed‟s inquiry
as a base. To get a better understanding of inequality, this inquiry has been complemented
with material from Swedish as well as foreign scientists, engaged in political science,
organsiational research, sociology, law and economics. One problem is that the labour market
might not be organised in the same way in the surroundings where the authors are describing,
which can make the analysis and results differ from one country to another. Still, the
description of the basic problem, that women has work condition where it is harder for them
to advance, they get lower wages and the least stimulating work, is the same in these labour
markets. This is why it is reasonable to use international literature to illustrate the problem.
The governmental policy, as presented in the two documents mentioned above, will be
analysed with the help of Morhed's theory. The evaluation of the policy, as well as the current
inequality, will be analysed with historical and, to some extent, rational choice
institutionalism. Morhed do recognise the meaning of historical events but her focus is on
finding alternative strategies to deal with discrimination.
This thesis will use institutional theory, both sociological, rational choice and historical
institutionalism to get a theoretical understanding of the problem. Most modern institutional
research is referring to March and Olsen‟s book Rediscovering institutions from 1989; so does
this thesis. It has been complemented with Hall and Taylor‟s also frequantly referred to article
from 1996, as well as the more recent theories of Guy Peters and John Campbell. These are
all American writer (except for Olsen who is Norwegian) but institutional theory is general so
it can be applied on different countries.
The evolution of the industry must be studied, to borrow the phrase of Poire and Sable, “to
gain a deeper understanding of the workings of capitalist economies”.20
Fordism is a concept
that emerged in the US in the early 20th
century and was later imported to Sweden, it was a
way of organising large scale production. The emergence of the new type of labour market
will be described with the US as a foundation and then the effects Fordism had on the
Swedish labour. This is somewhat problematic since the culture and organisation differ quite a
lot between the countries, still the historic importance of American Fordism cannot be
ignored. There were a certain degree modifications to make Fordism adjust to Swedish
conditions but most of the traits remain the same. Piore and Sabel‟s book from 1984, together
with Lipietz book from the same decade, will represent the flexible specialisation theory and
18
Hill 2007 p.192 19
SOU 2010:7 p.64 20
Poire, Michael J & Sabel, Charles F. 1984 The second industrial divide Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, New
York p.14
9
the Regulationist school that are both trying to explain Fordism and Post-Fordism. Andrea
Wigfield has contributed criticism of these theories.
1.4 Disposition
This thesis will start with a presentation of the current inequalities in the labour market and
the aspects that characterise the gender segregation as wage differences, promotion
possibilities and differences in type of work to show what the problem is. In chapter 3,
institutional theory will be presented and in what way the approaches rational choice,
sociological and historical institutionalism can be applied to the gender issue. To make it
easier to understand the inequalities of today, it is necessary to have an historical perspective
to show how the modern labour market was created. The focus in the historical background is
how the gender differences occurred in the industrial era and how Fordism came to develop.
The chapter will also present the theory of flexible specialisation and the Regulationist
approach. Chapter 4 will discuss what institutional theory can offer as an explanation to
gender differences as well as the post-Fordist theories and their contribution to understanding
gender inequalities. The conclusions made by the author will be presented in chapter 5.
2. Gender division
2.1 Segregation
What type of jobs men and women do depend on the preferences of the employer and what
expectations society have on men and women. For instance, a woman is expected to work
with care or service professions.21
In the 1990's the government decided to initiate a campaign
to make traditionally male sectors more attractive to women. It was an effect of women being
considered the solution of technical competence shortage in the 1980's and the project was to
get them to choose non-traditional educations; it was justified by claiming to change gender
structures. The government initiated campaigns for getting women to apply for technical
university programs and the campaign was a success, the amount of women on the
technological faculties increased. However, the integration was one way, it is still hard to get
men to choose female educations and professions.22
The decrease in the segregation gap has
been achieved because women have merged into typically male sectors.23
There are different types of segregation in the labour market; horizontal segregation, vertical
segregation and internal segregation. Horizontal segregation implies that men and women
have different jobs, different employers, diffrent tasks and are working in separate branches.
Vertical segregation means that it is harder for women to advance, no matter where they work.
Internal segregation is when men and women formally have the same position, job title or
employer, but what they do differs. A job that seems equal in the statistics might still be very
segregated when investigated what the employees actually do. It might be that people choose
a gender specific specialisation, the typically male specialisations usually have higher status
and better wage than the female counterpart.24
Men often get to do the more technical work.
21
SOU 2004:43 p.21 22
Ibid p.149, p.25 23
Gonäs 2005 p.112 24
SOU 2004.43 p.41-42
10
The segregation between different sectors has decreased during the latest decades, at the same
time the internal segregation has increased.25
This internal segregation has been explained to
be a result of the solidarity wage setting, extensive child care and jobs created in the public
sector; this in turn is directing women into low status and low income sectors.26
The female job sectors are usually less specified than male, which also makes female skills
and knowledge more general than male. This affects how easy it is to find a replacer or to
relocate the employees when needed. It might also affect other attributes as status, prestige
and the union‟s negotiation position.27
When companies or the state need to save money, it is
usually the female jobs that get cut in the process of rationalisation.28
There are two forms of flexibility when it comes to the division of work. The first one is
functional flexibility where the strict traditional division of work is loosened, the workers
have multiple skills and can manage many stages of the production process. Functional
flexibility can be divided into work enrichment or work enlargement. In functional flexibility,
men tend to get more qualified work and women get an enlargement of work.29
In the other
kind of flexibility, numeral flexibility, the number of employees changes with the change in
demand. If the demand drops, the company lets its employees go. In the latter kind of
flexibility the work can be seasonal based, it commonly means working shifts, weekends,
temporary and part time work. Contacts on zero hours are not rare and gaining in popularity.
These employees have few work rights and can easily be fired. Women are over represented
among these types of employment.30
2.2 Job flexibility
Numerical flexibility creates more jobs, but the amount of work remains the same.31
Part
timers often have a lower wage, harder to advance and might not be covered by the working
rights legislation. Flexible work is gendered, it affects women the hardest since they occupy
most of the part time jobs. Sylvia Walby, a sociologist at University of Leeds, claims that this
is a result of the male dominated union that were trying to defend their own jobs and wages
from the often female part time jobs and therefore neglected their work rights. The percentage
of men working part times has increased for the last years, but the increase in female part time
workers is many times bigger.32
About one third of women on the labour market are working
part time while 90 per cent of the men are working full time. Men working part time usually
chose to do so themselves while women more often are forced to part time unemployment.33
Many employers have transformed full time jobs to part time jobs to better match peak hours.
25
Gonäs 2005 p.149 26
Tilly, Chris Labour market inequality, past and future: a perspective from the United States in Gonäs, Lena
and Karlsson, Jan CH 2006 Gender Segregation, divisions of work in post-industrial welfare state Ashgate
p.20 27
SOU 2004:43 p.67 28
Gonäs 2005 p.118 29
Wigfield, Andrea 2001 Post-fordism, gender and work Ashgate, Aldershot p.69 30
Ibid p.51-55 31
Meulders, Danièle European policies promoting more flexible labour forces in Jenson, Laufer & Maurani 2000
p.252 32
Walby, Sylvia Re-signifying the worker: gender and flexibility in Jenson, Laufer & Maruani 2000 p.84-85 33
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.14, För ett jämställt Sverige p.17
11
Although this has negative effects too since part timers can be less loyal to the company and
feel less obligated to make an effort and therefore be less productive. Another negative impact
on productivity is that part timers get less training and do not improve their work abilities.34
Job flexibility is designed to move the costs caused by an unstable market from the employer
to the employee. Flexibility is hollowing out employment legislation concerning payment,
working hours and social protection. It encourages cheaper labour as self employment and
home work. The cost of involuntary part time work is carried by the employee instead of the
employer.35
In the 1960‟s and 1970‟s, there was a large increase in the amount of part time employees and
this had its biggest impact on mothers and wives. It was sometimes their only chance to
combine work and family. In the 1990‟s, the gap between women and men working part time
was reduced. Part timers have a more insecure position and are the first the companies get rid
of when reorganising.36
Part time jobs are rare in the industry but more common in the female
sectors, especially in the low paid and low status jobs.37
Working hours were individualised in the 1990's, flexible hours was supposed to make it
easier for women to combine work and family. To complete the tasks in advanced modern
production, the employees need specialisation which only a few employees possess and it
makes it harder to finish on time. There is too much work for the amount time calculated for it
so the promise of flexibility results in a bigger work load. There is no one to blame since
overtime is not demanded by the employer and it is the responsibility of the individual to plan
hers or his time. Instead of helping women, it made men work more and the divergence
increased.38
Those who want to make a career have to be willing to put a lot of time into their
work, as more responsibility usually means more overtime and weekends spent at work.
Women are expected to care for children and elders at the same time as taking care of a full
time job. If they do not care for children or elders, they are bad mothers/ daughters/ women
and if they do choose the family the chance of promotion might be lost.39
2.3 Job enrichment and job enlargement
Women tend to get lower wages and less training, partly because they are seen as unreliable
and might leave the company due to pregnancy or other caring duties. Female jobs usually
contain fast frequent movements while men's are more varying and the results are more
visible.40
This might be a result of the perceptions the management and work force have of
what is appropriate work for the genders and that formal policies are not likely to overcome
social norms.41
There are hidden perceptions about men's interests being the priority and this
creates an uneven work division.42
The segregation on the Swedish labour has a negative effect on productivity. Some companies
34
Tilly 2006 p.18-19 35
Meulders 2000 p.251, Crompton, Rosemary Employment, flexible working and the family in Gonäs &
Karlsson 2006 p.133-134 36
SOU 2004:43 p.70-71 37
Fagan, O'Reilly & Rubery Part-time work: challenging the ”breadwinner” gender contract in Jenson, Laufer
& Maruani 2000 p.177 38
SOU 2010:7 p. 69-70 39
Wigfield 2001 p.74, Fagan, O'Reilly & Rubery 2001 p.182 40
Silvera, Rachel The enduring wage gap: a Europe wide comparison in Jenson, Laufer & Maurani 2000 p.167 41
Wigfield 2001 p.28, p.85, p.186 42
Drejhammar, Inga-Britt Organisationsutveckling och jämställdhet Studentlitteratur, Lund 2001 p.22
12
have tried to increase productivity by introducing a less divided way of working where the
work is not fixed and the hierarchy less strict so everyone will get the chance to do
everything.43
This way of organising work has had some positive effects, but the results do
not always match expectations. If the new work organisation will result in work enrichment or
work enlargement depends on if the management can give the workers autonomy or just make
it look like autonomy when the workers get more work but not more responsibility. It also
depends on the amount of training, both technological and social, the workers get and if the
training is evenly distributed among the employees.44
Men have in general experienced an
improvement in their work situation with more responsibility and autonomy with the new
post-industrial era. Work places where efforts has been made to improve women's work by
mixing the genders usually creates a temporary improvement, but it is not long before things
are back to the way they were before with women doing the more monotonous, low-status
work. It does not matter if men are introduced at female dominated jobs or women at male
dominated jobs, either way there is a imminent risk that a new way to organise the work will
result in work enrichment for men and work enlargement for women.45
At the same time there
is a paradoxical move where the low-skilled jobs have moved abroad as a result of
international competition which makes it a lot harder for low educated workers in general and
low educated women in particular to get a job.46
2.4 On the big man's ladder
Two thirds of the managerial positions are occupied by men, 22 percent of the board members
and 90 percent of the managerial body likewise.47
The statistics presented in SOU 2004:43
show that all work categories considered, there is only one where the amount of female
supervisors are equal or larger than the amount of women in the group which means that
women are underrepresented in managerial positions in almost all jobs.48
Women do not stay
at top positions in companies and politics as long as men do. It is quite common that women
choose to step down from managerial positions since it is tough being one female in male
surroundings as executive positions are usually male domains.49
Female supervisors and
managers are usually opposed by means as marginalisation and they do not get all the
information.50
It might also be hard for a woman to combine the job with family life since she
is expected to take care of both family and the company, while a man is not expected to focus
on the family in the same way. A manager is supposed to show total dedication to the
company, and responsibility for a family removes focus from work and women are usually
considered to do a semi-career, the kind of career which she can combine with care of the
family. Even if a woman chooses not to have children, her employer might not be
convinced.51
In 2006, 25 percent of the supervisors were women. The statistics showed positive number in
the amount of women in leading positions for a few years, but it came to a halt. One
explanation might be that when companies reorganise and remove the managerial positions, it
is usually the midlevel managers that are affected and women usually occupy these
43
Drejhammar 2001 p.26 44
Wigfield 2001 p.67 45
Gonäs 2005 p.146, Wigfield 2001 p.69 and p.72, Wahl, Holgersson, Höök & Linghag 2000 Det ordnar sig
Studentlitteratur, Lund p.165 46
Gonäs, Lena Gendered division of work: a multilevel approach in Gonäs och Karlsson 2006 p.40 47
För ett jämställt Sverige p.12 48
SOU 2004:43 p.50 49
Kvinnliga chefer i näringslivet 2006- statistik p.5 50
SOU 2010:7 p.72, Drejhammar 2001 p.23 51
Wahl, Holgersson, Höök & Linghag 2000 p.105, p.107, SOU 2004:43 p.53-54
13
positions.52
The percentage of women being low is explained by homosociality at the top
according to work life research. Management positions are characterised by insecurity and the
ones at the top, usually men, tend to choose other men with similar background. It might also
be that men are insecure about what women are saying since some people claim they have
different languages, which can make it easier to choose a man.53
Male managers can
sometimes justify women's subordination as caused by passivity and lack of confidence.54
Cockburn, a feminist and sociologist, explains men and women's career opportunities as two
pyramids where the men forms the main one and women has a smaller one on the side and
there are no bridges between them. Men can advance from office jobs to management
positions in other parts of the company while women in managerial positions are responsible
for personnel issues and nothing else. Women cannot advance above a certain level and get
stuck as midlevel managers, there is a so called glass roof and that it is impossible for women
to reach above it, no matter her competence.55
The rule of seniority when promoting can have a segregation effect on women in the short
run, since they are more often on parental leave than men. In the long run the rules of
seniority might help elder low-educated women to get positions to which they would have
problems reaching otherwise. In the long run, the gender differences will decrease if the rules
of seniority are applied.56
2.5 Skills
The definition of skills is somehow problematic since it is a social construction that is usually
disadvantaging to women. The definition of skill is, according to Oxford Reference online
“[mass noun] the ability to do something well; expertise: difficult work, taking great skill.
[count noun] a particular ability: the skills of cookery.” The Wikipedia definition of skills is as
follows:
A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the
minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-
general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some
general skills would include time management, team work and leadership, self
motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a
certain job. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to
assess the level of skill being shown and used.57
The latter definition describes more extensively the meaning of the word and the values it
contains. The skills of women are usually seen as natural, something that cannot be trained.
Women are not rewarded for their new skills and men's training more often lead to
promotion.58
Some jobs that were seen as skilled when occupied by men have been
downgraded to unskilled when women took over the job category. One example is the
52
Kvinnliga chefer i näringslivet 2006 p.4 53
Wahl, Holgersson, Höök & Linghag 2000 p.107 54
Drejhammar 2001 p.20 55
Cockburn, Cynthia1991 In the way of women Macmillan Education Ltd London p.63 56
Silvera 2000 p.167-168 57
Wikipedia, searchword skill 58
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.13
14
production in the clothing industry where the male tailors where respected while female
machinists are mass producing garments in large scale factories and are seen as unskilled or
semiskilled.59
The man is usually the norm at the work place; the tools are made for him and at physical jobs
the employer might require a level of strength, a trait that used to be necessary but is no
longer needed in the job, which makes the entry to the profession harder for women. These
are mechanisms that keep women out and this can make it harder to apply for management
positions in the industry because they are lacking adequate experience as an effect of the
entrance difficulties.60
The monotonous work left for women causes injuries by physical
wear.61
2.6 Wage differences
Women's wages were 2008 in general 91 percent of what men earned if factors as age, sector
and position are considered. If these factors are disregarded, the wage gap was 84 per cent.62
The individual wage system that got more common in the 1990s had a negative effect on
women's wages since it made the female wage increase lag behind the male ones.63
The wage
gap is decreasing very slowly.64
Employers have the right to decides for themselves about hiring and setting wages, which can
make it harder to implement governmental policies of equal pay.65
Even if men and women
are now equal in a legal sense, it does not mean that wages and the hiring process are gender
blind. Wages are decided after a hierarchical system where different skills and experiences are
valued differently. The skills needed in care, as concentration and accuracy, are seen as
natural features of women which make them undervalued and therefore generates lower
salary.66
Female wages are traditionally viewed as a second income, a compliment to the male
breadwinner's, and they are not under the same economic pressure as men. The wage
differences nowadays depend not just on the heritage but also on the fact that women are
more often part time workers, but most important is that men and women are working in
different sectors.67
There are economical incentives for women to merge into male dominated
sectors since the wages are generally higher there, while there are few rewards for men to get
a job in female sectors. The wage gap within work categories is the biggest in male dominated
sectors, and especially large in high educated professions. In the female professions, the gaps
were smaller in the high educated sectors. The difference cannot be explained by women
having less qualified jobs, since women in general are more educated than men.68
According
to Silvera, a French economist, the wage gap grows higher up in the hierarchy. The difference
between male and female managers is four times bigger than between lower lever
59
Wigfield 2001 p.71 60
Drejhammar 2001 p.29-30 61
Ibid p.153 62
Statistics Sweden, Women and men in Sweden 2008 p.80 63
SOU 2004:43 p.76 64
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.21, p.23 65
Lanquetin, Marie-Thérèse Equality at work: what difference does legislation make? in Jenson, Laufer &
Maurani 2000 p.239 66
Ibid p.245, Wigfield 2001 p.70 67
Silvera 2000 p.161-163 68
SOU 2004:43 p.74-75, Gonäs 2005 p.112
15
employees.69
The number can be questioned since she does not say where the numbers have
been collected.
3. Institutionalism
John Campbell, a Harvard university economist, describes institutions as the foundation of
social life, they make the world and its functions understandable. An institution consists of
formal and informal rules, it has authority to make members follow the rules and it is an arena
for negotiations and for solving conflicts. Campbell explains that a society with weak or non-
existing institutions would be dangerous, dysfunctional and chaotic.70
Guy Peters, a political
scientist at university of Pittsburg, claim that institutions should contain a few features. They
should have an organised pattern for interaction between the individuals so it becomes
predictable, there should be institutional stability over time and there should also be some
kind of shared believes or perceptions between the individuals included. Institutions have
impact on individual behaviour, usually in a constraining way.71
There is a debate whether institutions can change or not. Guy Peter claims that “...institutions
have a set of routinized responses to problems, and will attempt to use the familiar responses
before searching for alternatives that are further away from core values”.72
The natures of
institutions are conservative, even if the institutions can support innovation and economic
growth. It is partly because institutions are, once created, profitable to the creator and other
influential individuals which make them hard to change.73
March and Olsen are warning for
viewing institutions as totally conservative. Institutions do not normally change as a result of
a plan and the outcome might not be the exact preference. The norms and routines of the
institution do not cover all areas, so new norms might lead to modifications in the institution.
There is also the possibility of creating a shock that will force the institution to change.74
Change comes from modifications in the environment in which the institution is functioning,
the institutions are said to be learning. Sometimes the institutions will misinterpret
information and respond wrongfully, which makes the institution more dysfunctional instead
of adapting to society.75
There are three main branches of institutional theory, historical institutionalism, rational
choice institutional theory and sociological institutionalism. The different types of
institutionalisms differ in many ways, but there are uniting aspects. Institutions need some
consistency over time and they continue to exist even if the members change, they create
predictable and regulates behaviour and they are necessary for a stable and efficient political
system.76
Institutions are not the only explanation to political behaviour, but they do affect the
political outcome and institutions need to be considered when trying to understand politics.
69
Silvera 2000 p.164 70
Campbell, John L. 2004 Institutional change and globalization Princeton university press, Princeton p.1 71
Peters, B. Guy 2005 Institutional theory in political science: the 'new institutionalism' Continuum, London
p.18-p.19 72
Ibid p.35 73
Campbell 2004 p.13 74
March, James G. & Johan P. Olsen 1989 Rediscovering institutions The free press, New York p.58 75
Campbell 2004 p.1 76
Peters, B. Guy Institutional theory: problems and prospects in Pierre, Peters & Stoker edt. 2008 Debating
institutionalism Manchester University Press, Manchester p.5-8
16
3.1 Rational Choice institutionalism
Rational choice institutionalism originated when scientists were trying to explain why
parliaments with a plurality of political ideologies and perceptions, where interests differ,
could still present stable majorities. The answer is that a norm for presenting choices and
spreading information to the members of parliament makes the political process more stable.
Institutions organise the alternatives so a plurality of political opinions can unite under a
wider suggestion than individuals would find optimal. Institutions create long term
commitment and stability which makes it easier to focus on the problem at hand, they are the
rules of the political game. Institutions exist because they offer “gains from exchange”77
, they
are reducing the costs of interaction between actions by supplying predictability.
The agent is expected to make strategic calculations for how the preferences will be met and
all individuals preferences can fit into the institution without modifying the preferences. The
institutions can be seen as a quasi-contract between the actors with equal power. According to
March and Olsen, decision making is made in two steps: first, the individuals make strategic
calculations about what option is most profitable and she/he might choose to enter the
contract. In the second step, the individuals fulfil the contract. All agents enter political
processes with personal resources which they use to achieve individual gains defined by
personal preferences.78
Institutions do have a restricting effect on the amount of options the
actor have, but they also offer possibilities that would not exist without the institution.
The fact that institutions continue to exist is a proof of their efficiency; if an institution
becomes inefficient then the actors will make sure it will be replaced by a new one to
guarantee functionality.79
Institutions change when they start to be dysfunctional and the
change is appearing through conscious actions of the members, new incentives will make
individuals choose a different behaviour and the institutions will change.80
The rational choice perceptions of institutions has been criticised for being too evolutionistic.
The institutions adapt so quickly to changes in the environment so there is no such thing as
dysfunctional institutions. Rational choice institutionalism has also been criticised for being
impossible to falsify. You cannot prove that perceptions and preferences are shaped inside
institutional frames, but it is not possible to say so is not the case either.81
3.1.1 Gender inequalities according to rational choice institutionalism
Chris Tilly, the director of UCLA‟s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, uses an
explanation which can be defined as a Rational Choice approach to the problem of
segregation at the labour market. According to the efficiency explanation, the companies try
to mix the skills of the employees in a way that will make the production process as optimal
as possible. Therefore, salaries are signalling what competence is missing and they reward
those who do a good job. By this assumption, if a woman is paid less than a man, it is because
she is less efficient than he is. It could be that she is on maternity leave or that her attention is
divided between work, home and children, which makes her produce less at work. If a woman
77
Harty, Siobhán Theorizing institutional change in Lecours, André edt 2005 New institutionalism, theory and
analysis University of Toronto press, Toronto p.54 78
March & Olsen p.9 79
Peters 2005 p.62, Harty 2005 p.58 80
Lecours, André New institutionalism: issues and questions in Lecours edt. 2005 p.6, p.12 81
Peters 2005 p.40-42
17
would be as productive but still be paid less, the demand for females for the male jobs would
increase since the productivity would be the same but the price less, which would lead to an
increase in women's wages.82
Although, Tilly consider this explanation insufficient since it
has been proved that there are not such differences in productivity that justifies the wage
gaps.83
According to a more social oriented explanation, there are norm setting ideas about
who is suitable for a certain job, which makes it harder for the other sex to get into that work
area. Tilly uses the phrase laissez-faire sexism to describe how employers claim that women
are lacking the necessary skills or physical strength for a certain job.84
A problem with the theory is that what is preferred by the individual can cause decisions that
are bad for the collective.85
Rational choice offers a quick way of changing institutions which
would mean that the equality problem could be fixed if the major part of the institution is
changed. Since the institutions remain unchanged it is proven that the institutions are working
well enough, even if research shows that this is far from the case. For example, the inequality
at the labour market results in efficient production so it would be rational to fix it, but the
institutions in this approach are working well so there is no way to do something about it.
3.2 Sociological institutionalism
Sociological institutionalism is focusing on how institutions, or culture as it define as almost
synonymous with institutions, effects preferences of individuals and organisations. Different
options seem to contain different levels of rationality only in the light of how society is
organised, an option preferred by the individual might not be the most efficient but it is
socially legitimised by the surroundings. Actors can be so deeply involved in the
institutionalised thinking so they do not see other alternatives, which sometimes would be the
better options.86
Institutions define identities and create a sense of belonging among the members of a certain
collective. Since the character of the institutions is conservative, the employees tend to come
from the same background, both ethnically and religiously, belong to the same social class
and the same gender. This will make the institutional way of thinking easy to absorb since the
sense of identification might already exist and the new subject wants to be assimilated.87
March and Olsen describes political institutions as a cluster of beliefs and norms. Individuals
tend to see society as the surrounding people do and like what surrounding people like, this
applies for politicians too. Expectations, preferences and interpretations of reality and
individual action patterns are created within institutions.88
Institutions contain norms, interests and identities and it is important to consider these when
studying bureaucracies and democratic processes. Routines, procedures, strategies
organisational forms as well as codes, cultures and the valuation of knowledge are all parts of
institutions. They usually contain rules for division of power and responsibility as well as
82
Tilly 2005 p.20 83
SOU 2004:43 p.74 84
Tilly 2005 85
Hall, Peter A & Rosemary C.R, Taylor 1996 Political science and the three new institutionalisms in Political
studies 86
Lecours 2005 p.10 87
March & Olsen 1989 p.119 88
Ibid p.39-41
18
standardised procedures for collecting, sorting and presenting information.89
Expertise is
knowledge and/or skills that has been approved and legitimised by the institution and there
are mechanisms working to conserve the monopoly on knowledge.90
Institutions can co-exist and the institutions tend to look and act alike in related areas. New
institutions are shaped under the influence of already existing institutions so many traits are
inherited through different institutional paradigms.91
Institutions change when roles and
functions are added or extracted, which leads to a modification in the workings of the
institution. They can also change as a result of changes in the environment; sometimes the
institutions are so strong so they can modify the surroundings.92
Sociological institutionalism has been criticised for not being able to separate institutions and
organisations. The sociological definition of institutions has been so wide so it can include
everything. Peters offer an explanation where organisations have been described as a team in
a game and institutions are the rules. The organisation‟s function in an institutional
surrounding and the actions of the actors are constrained by the institutions and disobeying
the rules has negative consequences for the individual and for the organisation.93
3.2.1 Sociological institutionalism and the gender issue
The institution‟s position when it comes to knowledge have had impact on segregation, it
might be that when a certain department get cuts in the budget, the priorities are usually made
by the head specialist, who is usually a man. Another example is that politicians deciding the
amount of education seats can make the decision to close some specialisations that tend to be
'female' since they are considered to be less important.94
Morhed is criticising the equality concept since it is seen as already achieved and
institutionalized and the concept itself is normative. She claims that equality should be
considered a discourse and this might help us understand why changes are so difficult.
According to the current discourse, most work places are equal so there is no need to change
anything, established work division and hierarchies are not being questioned. It is difficult to
make discourses and norms visible, the issue that need constant attention to gradually
improve women's work conditions and that government need to constantly remind of the
problem.95
Governmental demands make it harder for companies to ignore or 'forget'
discrimination.96
Although, she is doubtful about the effects caused by too much focus on
statistics where governmental intervention has been targeting numbers and examinations of
differences in wages has been a common strategy to analyse gender inequalities. This will not
achieve equality since it only change things on the surface and not deal with the hidden roots
to the problem.97
Morhed claims that wage differences might reflect what approach the
company have to gender issues which make it important to investigate the whole policy and
not just the wages.98
Morhed is not uncontested, Meulders thinks that “all of the mechanisms
89
March & Olsen 1989 p.17, p.22 90
Ibid p.30 91
Lecours 2005 p.12-13 92
Peters 2005 p.118-119 93
Ibid p.117 94
SOU 2004:43 p.57 95
SOU 2010:7 p.66 96
Ibid p.52 97
Ibid p.73-78 98
Ibid p.186
19
that guarantee wages being indexed to the cost of living are good for women, since they
secure at least a modicum of increments for what are generally low wages”.99
They are both
promoting a more equal labour market but their suggestions of how to get there differs.
When it comes to wages and bonuses it has been noted that bonuses are more common in
male sectors and on higher levels. It is more effective to work with equal promotions than
focusing on giving women more bonuses and just increasing the wages will just cure the
symptoms but not cure inequality. According to Silvera, minimum wages have proved to have
a positive effect on women's wages, for as long as they have been qualified for work rights,
and so have centralised wage negotiations and more transparency in the wage setting
classifications.100
Different governments have, since the first equality law was passed in the 1980's, been
promoting active measures as a way of achieving equality. Active measures is a way of
working with equality upstream, they are general, corporate and focus on structures instead of
individuals to prevent discrimination. The active measures are focusing on social norms and
discourses to make it possible to make a long term change.101
Among the active measures are
wage mapping to detect unmotivated gender differences, equality plans, lectures and
workshops on equality. It might also be co-operation between employers and unions to better
design and implement the equality plan.102
Some of the active measures that are supposed to
decrease gender gaps have appeared to be quite ineffective. Morhed argues that the equality
plans the companies need to have according to the legislation only results in rarely
incorporated equality ambitions that are not a part of the companies‟ daily work. Instead, there
have been isolated efforts as wage evaluation or recruitment to improve equality. Morhed
want the companies to co-operate with the unions and thereby include the employees in the
equality work to get the equality plans implemented.103
According to her suggestion, every
work place with more than 25 employees should have a gender perspective when hiring,
distribution work and training of the employees, the goals with the equality policy should be
clear and measurable.
Morhed wants more awareness of gender within companies, for example should the
companies reconsider their whole recruitment process not to exclude underrepresented
groups. Subconscious perceptions of what skills needed might shine through in a job
advertisement and this might intimidate other groups to apply for the job. She encourages
untraditional career choices for both sexes and gender awareness when deciding on the
amount, type and distribution of training and how work rotation is organised.104
Morhed is critical to the governmental strategy to change formal strategies instead of focusing
on the informal discrimination where the problem lies. Sweden has been successful in
achieving formal rights so it is not as important to improve these areas as it might be
elsewhere. There has been a shift from women rights being a women's issue to being a
democratic issue. The gender research, instead of women research, is supposed to include
men and make them realize they will gain from equality too.
99
Meulder 2000 p.260 100
Silvera 2000 p.165, 168-169 101
SOU 2010:7 p.65 102
Ibid p.47-48 103
Ibid p.152 104
Ibid p.179-180
20
The suggested strategy in SOU 2004:43 is that the responsibility should be shared between
the civil society and the state. The inquiry suggests that similar projects for getting girls/
women into the traditionally male technologic educations should be made for boys/men to get
them to choose traditionally female professions.105
The governmental policy is to make it
easier for those who want to make untraditional career choices to do so and they have initiated
a technical delegation to promote girls and women's interest for technical educations.106
3.3 Historical institutionalism
Historical institutionalism is focusing on formal structures such as policy making organs, but
it is getting more common for historical institutionalists to include ideas as a form of
institutions. Hall and Taylor have a wider definition for historical institutionalists, “...they
define them as the formal or informal procedures, routines, norms and conventions embedded
in the organizational structure of the polity or political economy”.107
Institutionalism is a way
of explaining political decisions in times of stability. The one designing the institution might
get future gains from the institution since they preserve a structure which tends to be positive
for the designer.108
Even if they are conserving a certain structure, it does not mean the
institutions themselves are stiff and conservative; institutions can encourage innovations and
creativity.109
According to this approach, the main conflict in societal organisation is how resources should
be divided among rival interests. Competing forces are trying to move new or modified
policies in their preferred direction, but the power division is uneven so it results in political
decisions that favour some interests before others. The state is favouring some groups and
decides the winner of the competing interest groups.110
The power relations are
institutionalised and effect political outcomes in the future since these structures shape actors
behaviour. Structural choices made when the institutions were emerging will affect the
policies shaped within the institutional frame as long as the institution and policies exists, this
is because new participants are socialised into the institutional way of thinking by positive
enforcement when the individual acts in a way that is in line with the institutional policy.
When a certain way of thinking has become institutionalised it is hard to change, this
phenomenon is called path dependency. It has been describes as “path dependency is the idea
that once institutions are formed, they take on a life of their own and drive political
processes”.111
Once a certain path has been chosen, the costs for changing direction of the
policy will be very high.112
A certain degree of change can appear since there are
modifications in the environment which demands adjustment, but the changes are within the
constraints of the chosen path. History matters and small events might lead to grand and
unexpected effects on policies. For example, if a lobbyist is trying to change the direction of a
certain policy, it can undermine institutional stability so the long term policy changes
105
SOU 2004:43 p.169 106
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09:198 p.34 107
Hall & Taylor 1996 108
Rothstein, Bo Labor-market institutions and working-class strength in Steinmo, Thelen & Longstreth edt.
1992 Structuring politics Cambridge University Press, Cambridge p.35 109
Thelen, Kathleen & Sven Steinmo Historical institutionalism in comparative politics in Steinmo, Thelen &
Longstreth edt. 1992 p.15-16, p.24 110
Lecours 2005 p.7, p.9 111
Ibid p.9 112
Harty 2005. p.56-58
21
direction. A policy should be considered as part of a policy package and a modification of one
policy will affect the whole package.113
The rationality of the individual is constrained by institutions. Many individuals adapt to the
social norms instead of what would be most profitable for the individual. Historical
institutionalists see rationality as a somewhat hollow explanation, since preferences are
affected by historical background as class and gender.114
Institutions modify the actor‟s
perceptions about how others will act under given circumstances. They combine rational
behaviour and cultural explanations for how individuals and organisations function.115
The institutions survive because they offer predictability since individuals will act within the
institutional constrains.116
Institutions do not disappear when they become less efficient but
continue to influence until they can no longer function in current social and cultural
climate.117
They tend to reproduce what already exists instead of change internally. Change
usually occurs as a result of an exogenous shock which makes it hard or even impossible for
the institution fulfil to its role; change itself is not included since the purpose of institutions is
to create stability and predictability.118
Previous policies can make it easier for politicians and
other decision-makers to predict future policy possibilities.119
Historical institutionalism has been criticised for claiming that institutions have impact on
individual behaviour, but it does not explain how behaviour is affected. It has also been
criticised for not leaving any room for change. Hall and Taylor claim that “institutions are
resistant to redesign ultimately because they structure the very choices about reform that the
individual is likely to make”.120
Change cannot be foreseen since it happens when the
institutions can no longer function in the environment so a change of path is necessary.
3.3.1 Fordism emerging- a historical presentation of the institutionalisation of discrimination
The concept of Fordism was invented by Gramsci and Henri de Man and describes a way of
production.121
The main traits of institutional Fordism are economies of scale, economic
returns to society, work fragmentation and a division between preparation and execution of
production.122
Fordism appeared in the Michigan, USA, 1914 at the Ford car manufactory
when building the model T.123
The strategy of vertical integration where all production, from
designing, production and advertising, were made within the company so it could control the
supply and prices of raw material and labour. With this strategy, the raw material was
transformed into cars in about 72 hours. The Ford factory employed 100 000 workers in 1938,
113
Weir, Margaret Ideas and the politics of bounded innovation in Steinmo, Thelen & Longsteth edt. 1992 p.193 114
Thelen & Steinmo 1992 p.8-9 115
Hall & Taylor 1996 116
Ibid, Peters 2005 p.3 117
Lecours 2005 p.12-13, March & Olsen 1989 p.135 118
Lecours 2005 p.12 119
Weir 2005 p.191 120
Hall & Taylor 1996 121
Lipietz, Alain Mirages and Miracles, The crises of global fordism, Verso London 1987 p.35 122
Piore, Michael J Technological trajectories and the classical revival in economics in Storper & Scott 1992
p.159 123
Viktorov, Ilja Fordismens kris och löntagarforderna i Sverige Stockholm universitet 2006 p.49, 54-5 and
Wigfield 2001 p.7
22
most of them men.124
The central concepts in the Fordist industry are work intensification and mass production.
Fordism is inspired by Taylorism where the idea is to minimize movement to optimize the
speed of production, when workers had their fixed tasks they would optimize their moves and
thereby get faster and the amount of output would increase, which means fragmentation of
work and more monotonous moves. The management wanted to be able to monitor the
production so they could make changes where the work was lagging. To keep up the pressure
on the workers, all foremen and supervisors could fire the slow ones or the cheeky ones
instantly.125
Competent workers could be rewarded by being moved to better parts of the
factory.
In the early days of industrialisation, few women got a job in the factory, but the ones who did
were paid less since they were not expected to support a family and did not have work rights
since they had no need to work. Working class women that could not afford to be home were
hired as maid, bourgeoisie women could work as nurses when there was no husband or when
the husband's pay was not enough.126
Fordism put the management to the test; new skills were needed to manage wages and debts,
buying land and planning. The office needed other qualities than good craftsmanship; people
were hired to deal only with human resources and management issues.127
They needed the
right administrative personnel to run the factory and other skills than good handcraft is
required. The factory was divided into blue collars working on the industry floor and white
collars working at the office with programming and management. Many women were hired as
secretaries, receptionists and salary administrators; even though there was political debate
about if it was appropriate for women to work at all.128
Making the profit as great as possible for the manufacturer meant a strategy of replacing the
labour with machines. At large quantities, a machine can lower the production cost for each
unit. The workers complement the machines in what they cannot do, but the skills formerly
needed became unnecessary. If the installation of expensive machines would be profitable, it
had to produce what the market wanted. The demand for goods could change quickly, and
therefore the manufacturer wanted to be able to change what was being produced quickly and
to a low cost. The machines needed to be adjustable to be able to produce a variety of
goods.129
The machines were advanced and they could not be mass produced, they need
skilled technicians and workers with programming skills to build and maintain them.130
As the
amount of output increased, the amount of machines grew as well as the size of the
production and the company.
In the late 1960s, the glory days of Fordism were reaching an end. The ever increasing rise in
124
BBCs webpage 125
Börnfeldt , Per-Ola 2006 Förändringskompetens på industrigolvet Göteborgs universitet/ Arbetslivsinstitutet
Stockholm p.12-14 126
SOU 2004:43 p.29, Gardey, Delphine Time and women's work: historical periodisation in Jenson, Laufer &
Maurani 2000 p.43 127
Lehne, Richard 2006 American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective, Second edition CQ Press
Washingtonp.8-9 128
Gardey 2000 p.43, SOU 2004:43 p.31 129
Poire & Sabel 1984 p.30 130
Ibid p.27
23
production and consumption turned out not to be everlasting. To keep the productivity rising,
the machines needed to be more advanced, and the cost of fixed capital was rising. The wages
kept rising even if the production did not. The companies had to make layoffs and some ended
up with big debts, the only reason they survived was because of the credit they received from
banks. The unemployment rate was rising, which meant an increasing number of people in
need of social welfare. In combination with fewer tax payers, the pressure on the welfare state
grew and the government could not afford to support them all.131
When mass production was gaining market shares in America and elsewhere, Europe and
Japan was forced to import Fordism to be able to compete with the American companies. The
European countries had to adapt a different strategy since the inclination to consume was low
after in the post war era. Instead, the production had to be directed towards exportation.132
In
the 1970's, Europe and Japan had been catching up with the US. The American companies
had competition on the international market which affected the intern economy and the
country experienced recession and crises, which culminated in the two oil crises.133
3.3.2 Fordism in Sweden
Sweden was very well suited for Fordism and embraced it whole heartedly. In the nineteenth
century, the Swedish government did reformations in the school system to educate the
population, the infrastructure was improved and institutional changes (accidentally) prepared
the country for the new production paradigm.134
The Swedish market was dominated by a few
large scale companies; the Wallenberg family is a good example. There was a fixed venture
capitalist and the commitments were long term. Also, the industry started producing for an
international market at an early stage. It made it possible to produce the quantities needed to
cut the production costs per unit.135
Fordism brought Sweden prosperity and made it one of
the richest countries in the world by the 1970's.
As the economy expanded, many women entered waged labour. The welfare state grew and
womens caring duties were taken over by public facilities, many women could do the same
work they had been doing in the home before but now they got paid for it. This created new
female sectors and is considered to be the reason Sweden has such a segregated labour
market.136
The biggest difference between the American Fordism and the Swedish one is the relationship
between employers and unions. In America, the employers used a kind of welfare capitalism
to prevent employees to join the union. The organisational level of the work force is so high
that the Swedish employers could not use the same strategy and never intended to do so.
Instead, they chose to co-operate with the union. Sweden has had a homogeneous population,
which made it easier to centralise wage negotiations. Both the unions and the employer
organisations have had a high level of organisation and centralisation so the negotiations
could be made for the whole country. Wages were set for a few years and the economy had
the resemblance of a plan economy but with organisations designing the plan. The employers
131
Lipietz 1987 p.42-44 132
Poire & Sabel 1984 p.133 133
Lipietz 1987 p.44-45 134
Andersson, Thomas, Pontus Braunerhjelm & Ulf Jakobsson 2006 Det svenska miraklet i repris? om den
tredje industriella revolutionen, globaliseringen och tillväxten SNS förlagp.37 135
Viktorov 2006 p.54 136
Drejhammar 2001 p.13
24
could minimise their costs for negotiations and keep a good relation to the unions.137
Tilly
identifies compressed wage system in Sweden as caused by negotiations between employers
and unions and this is one key factor of the relatively small wage gap.138
The unions could
offer their members good wages, employment safety and predictability. The agreements were
on long term, which meant that the workers incomes and demand as well as the employers
wage costs were stabilised and predictable. Viktorov claims this is the reason Swedish mass
production was a success and the Swedish model is a kind of Fordism.139
3.3.3 Political-economic strategy
The transition into large scale production demanded someone to buy the products the factory
wanted to sell. That was the reason for Ford to offer good wages and a limitation on the
working hours, so the employees would have the opportunity to become mass consumers.
That would create a base of consumers which would buy products from other companies,
which would then be able to increase their production and pay their employees. It would be an
ever increasing spiral of production and consumption.140
The work performed at the assembly line was to be as easy as possible to make the
introduction period short and to make the labour exchangeable.141
The increase in wages that
the workers were offered was partly to keep them, even if Fordism introduced a deskilling
production. The pay was, in a way, a compensation for the under stimulating work but the
high wages were motivated by the higher rates of output that Fordism created.142
The Fordist
production mode has been criticised because intellectual development is limited by
monotonous work and lead to helplessness and passivity in other aspects of life, employees
with monotonous work are rarely active in politics, cultural arrangements etc.143
The promotions were made within the company and the gap left by the person moving up is
filled by low educated workers. About one third of the men could be promoted, but it was
almost impossible for women to advance.144
The management and supervisory positions were
guarded by the male dominated unions so these positions were reserved for men.145
Women
got the low status jobs and were cheaper since they were paid much less, the company did not
need to pay for retirement since they usually left when they got married, they were not
organised in unions and they did not demand to get promoted as men did. Also, since they
were expected to leave the company within a few years, it was acceptable to give them
unskilled and unwanted positions with monotonous work that in the long run would cause
work related injuries.146
The Fordist era was time when the modern welfare state was evolving in the US. It prohibited
child labour, provided social support for those who were unable to work and legislated on the
137
Viktorov 2006 p.59-60 138
Tilly 2005p.20 139
Viktorov 2006 p.38-39 140
Wigfield 2001 p.9, Lipietz 1987 p.36 141
Viktorov 2006 p.49 142
BBCs webpage 143
Börnfeldt 2006 p.1 144
Gardey 2000 p.43 145
Walby 2000 p.85 146
SOU 2004:43 p.30-31, Young, Birgitte Globalization and gender: a European perspective in Kelly, Bayes,
Hawkesworth and Young 2001Gender, globalization and democratization, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
inc p.36
25
forty hour work week.147
The government created laws for minimum wages to stop the
competition from unemployed who would otherwise offer the same labour to a lower price.148
It also made decisions to protect (male) workers rights and equal opportunities to get a job
and keep it. The government were protecting the male full time jobs against part time jobs,
usually occupied by women, and excepting the part time jobs from the work right legislation
including minimum wages, time regulation and social security.149
The wages are the biggest
part of production costs and when the wages rise, so does the prices so some groups were
exempted from the regulation to control the inflation. Besides women, farmers lacked work
and wage rights and were supposed to drain the rest of the labour market from low paid.150
The scope of Fordism was limited. Few companies fully adapted the Fordist way of
production and the amount of workers in these sectors were not that many in total. Still, the
Fordist way of production and thinking had a big influence on the politics and economy, the
unions in other sectors usually used the industry as a role model for negotiating wages.151
The
traits of the production mode were channelled into other part of society and had effect on
other institutions.
3.3.3.1 The Regulationist approach
The transition from Fordism to post-Fordist was as much a cultural change as an economic
change. The American state during the Fordist era encouraged economic growth and mass
production and mass-hiring when a new kind of consumption culture was created. The market
demanded consumption to be able to produce, and the state supported this strategy by giving
economic aid to the ones not being able to afford the kind of large scale consumption the
companies wanted. According to Lipietz, that is the very reason the welfare state exists.152
The welfare state expanded to give economic support to sick, elders and unemployed so they
would contribute to the consumption and not slow progress. Although the welfare distribution
had a double effect: it did indeed make consumption easier for underprivileged groups, but it
also limited the consumption for groups with a higher income since parts of their tax money
was taken to pay for the welfare system.
Two concepts are central to the Regulationist approach: the regime of accumulation and the
mode of regulation. The former is focusing on macroeconomic norms for production
including wage and tax setting, demand and consumption and norms for how management
should be and about how to organise production and consumption. The regimes of
accumulation are very different in Fordism and Post-Fordism as they are based on different
ideas of how to organise production, economics and politics. The mode of regulation means
the institutions, both formal and informal, as laws, agreements, norms and culture that
regulates the market and contains ways to make people adjust to the current economical
regime. The term Regulationism refers to how the market regulates itself by creating
institutions and norms as a way of stabilising the capitalist systems with its tendencies to
instability, changes and crises.153
Democratic processes occur in the overlapping of economic
system, when the regime of accumulation is almost through the transition process and begin
147
Lehne 2006 p.309 148
Lipietz 1987 p.37 149
Walby 2000 p.82-83 150
Poire & Sabel 1984 p.83-84 151
Jessop, Bob Fordism and post-Fordism: a critical reformulaion in Storper and Scott edt. 1992 p.53 152
Lipietz p.16 153
Amin, Ash 1994 Post-Fordism: models, fantasies and phantoms of transition in Post-fordism a reader edt
Amin, Ash Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford p.7-8
26
to settle and institutionalises norms, practices and laws, it is harder to change the mode of
regulations. The new mode of regulation sets. The institutions have had effects even on the
non-industrial sectors where Fordism was not dominant. In Post-Fordism, the idea of constant
innovation and fast pace has effected all sectors including those who has nothing to do with
the industry as service and health care.154
When the new technologies were emerging as the regime of accumulation changed, in
combination with internationalisation of production and the new local and regional
economies, this has contributed to a changing character in political and economical behaviour
of the welfare state according to Jessop.155
The welfare state has been going through a process
of hollowing-out, where the 'welfare' bit has lost some importance. The state is still important
but has had to change behaviour, even if it is still able to use its authority to preserve the
national sovereignty.156
The new role of the state includes guiding the economy into new
types of production as the competition from developing countries makes it harder to remain in
the same markets.157
Leborgne and Lipietz claim that in the industrial divide occurring in the
mid 1990's, it was a time when politics decided the future production. At the next change of
accumulation regime, the politics will have to make a stand in issues as macroeconomic
consistency and social inclusion of women and ethnic minorities.158
The Regulationists are often using the Neo-Marxist explanation of core and periphery to
describe work relations where low skilled workers, in the developed world as well as in
developing countries, can be considered as peripheral works.
3.3.3.2 Flexible specialisation theory
Piore and Sabel explain the rise of industrialism as the first industrial divide, which was
completed in the Fordist production mode.159
An industrial divide is when the technology is at
a crossroads and the decision made by politicians, manufacturers and unions etc will have a
deep impact on the future of production. The transition from Fordism to Post-Fordism is seen
as the second industrial divide.160
In the late 1960‟s, the Fordist system had a downturn and the public started to distrust the
industrial system. The inflation was rising and so was the unemployment level, there was not
enough material for the production. According to Piore and Sabel, the downturn was an effect
of limited natural resources, mainly energy, and this slowed economic growth.161
There was a
demand from the unions to keep the wages rising in the same way they had before, but the
economy stagnated and the manufacturers were not willing to do that anymore. Piore and
Sable explains that the companies hired marginalised group like women, young and illegal
immigrants to fill the factories with cheap labour since the cost of 'ordinary' male workers
were too high and they were also rare in the times of war.162
At first, these were only to be
154
Jessop 1992 p.15 155
Ibid p.11 156
Ibid p.21 157
Jessop 1992 p.13 158
Leborgne, Danièle and Alain Lipitez 1992 Conceptual fallacies and open questions on post-Fordism in
Storper, Michael and Allen J. Scott edt. Pathway to industrailization and regional developement Routhledge
London and New York p.347 159
Piore & Sabel 1984 p.15 160
Ibid p.5-6 161
Ibid p.165 162
Ibid p.169
27
hired temporarily and were offered worse conditions that “regular” workers, but many ended
up staying longer than they first planned. The explanation that women were a work reserve
that was called for in times of emergency has been criticised. Walby claims that women were
entering labour even in times of recession.163
The big companies are usually too slow to adjust to the changes on the market. Piore & Sabel
claim that large scale production cannot meet the semi-individualised products the public
demands and that work loses its importance when there is too much routine. They see narrow
work definitions as a result of Fordism where workers are limited and do not get to develop
their skills.164
Instead, they want a production process more like craft production where the
consumers get what they want and the employees can develop and be proud of their skills.165
Flexible specialisation is based on the same fragmentation of work as in Fordism, but instead
of repetitive work it means that someone might specialise in one or a few areas. It is a kind of
social work division where the employee can choose specialisation and do the profession
under relatively free forms and thereby optimise efficiency since the worker is free to
disposition the time as needed.
When the development goes further into flexible specialisation it will by necessity lead to
functional flexibility and that the work the employees does is enriched.166
The workers need
to be multi-skilled so they can adjust to the new demands and produce things they have not
done before. Skilled workers are therefore likely to be more innovative since their wider
conception of production can make them see beyond existing technology or just optimise
existing technologies and work organisations. The problem with too much specialisation is
that it might limit the possibility to other perspectives. A worker that has been institutionalised
into company thinking might not see innovative solutions.167
The companies are supposed to
be small and form clusters where communication and experiences are exchanged between
companies.168
The system of craft production where the skills of the workers are complemented with
machines and the system of mass production where machines substitute the workers skills
have been two parallel systems for some time until craft production was replaced by mass
production.169
The reason the Fordist production system failed in the long run was because of
mistakes in economic policy making as floating exchange rates and restrictive policies in
combination with a drop in demand and economic recession, inbuilt deficits in the mass
production system resulting in over production and changes in public demand for more
individualised goods. All this made so the system unable to survive. Piore and Sabel say that
there was nothing inevitable about Fordism, at the same time they say that Fordism beat all
the other alternatives because of its superiority in efficiency and rationalisation.170
They want
to point out that industrialisation is not determined in advance; it depends on decisions made
by individuals, companies and the government in combination with historical
circumstances.171
163
Walby 2000 p.83 164
Piore & Sabel 1984 p.124 165
Ibid p.17, 115-116 166
Wigfield 2001 p. 65 167
Ibid p.18, Piore 1992 p.167 168
Piore 1992 p.159-160 169
Poire & Sabel 1984 p.19 170
Wigfield 2001 p.11, p.15 171
Amin 1994 p.14
28
Piore and Sabel are sceptical about the wage system where wages are decided by the time the
employee has been at the company as well as position, not how well the work is done. The
most junior is the one to leave when the amount of work is running low.172
The craft
production is organized in the way that the employees‟ skill decides the wage and the system
encourage people to do a better job. The employment security system is based on exclusion of
unskilled labour, the job hierarchy is flat and everyone is seen as equal, which makes
supervisors unnecessary.173
Piore and Sabel see the large scale companies‟ structures with
multi-level hierarchy as a problem since it gives too much power to midlevel supervisors.174
Every company is dependant of a microeconomic regulation system, and in the capitalist era
this mechanism is price. Prices are signalling when demand exceeds supply and the amount of
output need to increase as well as telling the market in which sectors there need to be cut
backs. In the system where minimum wages are applied, the prices system as a mean of
allocating resources fails and labour are not moved to successful sectors.175
The theory on flexible specialisation has been said to be industrialisation after
industrialisation. It has been criticised to put too much focus on production and leave out
other aspects of society that has affected the Fordist and Post-Fordist production mode.176
It
has also been criticised for not paying any attention to gender. The skilled worker in their
presentation is one working with construction or carpeting etc, which is traditionally male
work. The skills and work they are talking about are gendered but there is no sign they are
aware of it.177
3.3.4 Neo-Fordism and Post-Fordism
Lean production, or Neo-Fordism, has inherited the traits of Fordism with the workers
stationed at the assembly line. The idea is to eliminate waste as time out of production,
machines not in use, overproduction with storage costs and management by stress to keep
speeding up the production by just-in-time production.178
Just in time production means the
production of the right amount of parts at the right time. The speed of the assembly line is
supposed to make it impossible for the workers to make their way up the belt to get a
pause.179
When a problem occurs, the employees are encouraged to fix the problems
themselves. A buffer makes the workers comfortable and less inclined to fix the problem
quickly, and therefore the buffer should be kept low or non-existing. Many factories have
installed cameras so workers know that their work can be observed but they do not know
when.180
While Neo-Fordism is optimised Fordism, Post-Fordism is the more evolved form of the
industrialized society. The two types have quite different methods to reach efficiency in
production. Lean production contains all the traits of Fordism while the definition of post-
Fordims is a bit more unclear, there is not one definition that all agree on. Bob Jessop defines
172
Poire & Sabel 1984 p.113 173
Wigfield 2001 p.18 174
Piore & Sabel 1984 p.282 175
Ibid p.50, p.83 176
Elam, Mark Innovation as the craft of combination 1993 p.42, p.50 177
Wigfield 2001, McDowell, Linda Life without father and Ford: New gender order of Post-Fordism,
Transaction of the Institute of British geographers, vol 16, no 4 1991 p.404 178
Börnfeldt 2006 p.25, p.29, p.34 179
Ibid p.35-37 180
Ibid p.41-42
29
Fordism as based on mass work, while Post-Fordism contains a core of educated/trained
skilled full time workers with stable work conditions, high wages, promotion possibilities,
experiencing job enrichment and get training and a periphery of unskilled low-educated
workers.181
The periphery is characterised by part time job, low skilled and often monotonous
work, few work rights, low job security, experiencing job enlargement and the employees are
seen as disposable. The core usually consists of men in white collar jobs and blue collar
women are usually working in the periphery.182
The term flexibility is central to the Post-Fordist production; it applies to machines, systems
and labour.183
The machines, as well as other forms of technology, should produce goods to
meet demand and it should also allow specialisation for the work force.184
Numeral and wage
flexibility have become two of the key words in the Post-Fordist society, the insecurity it
means to the employees has a large impact on women.185
Wages can be either rigid or flexible, the former means a permanent employment and stable
wages while the latter usually means less secure forms of employment. In the Post-Fordist
society, wages are no longer seen as something that creates demand as it was in the Fordist
period, instead it is seen as production costs.
When it comes to human resources, Post-Fordism and Neo-Fordism have very different ways
to treat their employees. In lean production, it is not necessary to keep the employees since
there will be new workers filling in for the 'used' ones. In the Post-Fordist production, the
employees supply knowledge and even if the knowledge do not stay in one company, it can
move between the companies and be a source of new ideas. The most central concept in the
post-Fordist mode of production is technical innovation; it is generating economic growth and
creates jobs.186
Highly skilled and specialised workers are needed to do the job, which results
in stimulating but stressful jobs for the employees and problems finding the right competence
and matching problems for the companies and these results in a higher unemployment rate in
society.
Flexible working hours is supposed to make it easier for women to combine work and family,
but flexible work affects men and women in different ways. While work in the female sectors
are spread on a number of part time jobs, the employees in male sectors work overtime.187
Employees in the Post-Fordist production need specialised skills which only a few employees
possess, and it makes it harder to finish on time. Instead of helping women, it made men work
more and the divergence increased.188
181
Jessop, Bob 1991The welfare state in the transition from Fordism to Post-Fordism in The politics of flexibility
edt Jessop, Kastendiek, Nielsen and Pedersen, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited 182
Wigfield 2001 p.51-52 183
Jessop 1992 p.61 184
Leborgne & Lipietz 1992 p.334 185
Crompton 2006 p.133-134 186
Wigfield 2001 p.75 187
Fagan, O'Reilly & Rubery 2000 p.177 188
SOU 2010:7 p.69-70
30
4. Institutions, Post-Fordism and gender segregation
4.1 Institutional deficits
There are institutional problems that are conserving the gender segregation. One problem is
that women, as an effect of historical norms and decisions, in general are paid lower which
make it rational for a woman in the heterosexual family to stay home with the children since
the income loss is smaller that way. This also makes it rational for the employer to be careful
to hire women in fertile age, since it will increase the cost if she is away from work. On the
other hand, if all women of fertile age are home with children or unemployed, it will cost
society a lot of money. What is rational on an individual, family and company level is not
rational on a society level and that is why the discrimination cannot easily be fixed. The
institutions need to be designed or modified with awareness of these problems. At the same
time the decision makers need to be aware of other types of family constellations and fit these
into the limitations of the old and the surrounding institutions.
Another problem is that not all individuals are willing to make a change. It is not rare that
women see it as their right to take all the parental leave and this makes it hard to change the
prejudice about women being unreliable, as well as less productive, than men. Also, even if a
man will not get paid less if his female co-workers are paid more, he is relatively worse than
what he could have got. It might even be considered as she has been benefited on his expense
if her pay increase is bigger. Even if the governmental policy promotes equal wages, it is
rational for him to defend his higher wages and he has no direct personal gains from a relative
lower pay increase. There are no institutions giving the ones benefiting from the system a
reason to do something about discrimination, the incentives are too weak. The rational
behaviour of the individuals, given the institutional constrains, allows the gender injustices to
persist.
4.2 Current political strategy
The equality policy have created a move to even out the gender segregation and this includes
trying to make companies aware of the benefits from preferring a man at a women dominated
work place or recruit women to boards. It might seem a bit unfair to the ones rejected based
on gender when qualifications are otherwise equal, but qualifications are socially constructed
and if skills were equally valued this kind of strategy would not be needed. Quotation or just
the threat of quotation has been proved effectual for even out the formal gender differences.189
The Reinfeldt government hopes to achieve the same result but without sticks. Their strategy
is to educate women for boards so the companies can choose candidates without
governmental inference and provide support and encouragement for women to conquer „male‟
spaces.
One of the main explanations of the wage gap is that men and women are working in different
sectors and make career choices based on traditional norms for work division. To decrease the
gender segregation on the labour market, both Morhed and SOU 2004:43 are suggesting that
both genders should be encouraged to make untraditional career choices. The government has
initiated a project to make girls move into male sectors, but no project working in the other
direction. Both the public inquiries suggest that there should be campaigns for encouraging
boys and men to choose 'female' professions just as there has been to make girls and women
189
Kvinnliga chefer i näringslivet 2006 p.13
31
interested in technology. It is an example of a long term commitment that will limit gender
segregation, but at the same time it can be criticised for trying to make only women change
when the problem concerns most parts of society.
Pluralism at work places will have motivating effects on the employees and create a better
and more innovative workplace, which will benefit employees, companies and society. The
climate at work is better when the members of the staff reflects the population in general and
equality at the work place has proved to make the employees more motivated, which in turn
will result in higher productivity. Improving the working climate, especially for women, has
proved to be one of the most profitable things a company can do.190
If the work would be
equally distributed among the employees, it would be even better but this might be hard to
achieve since most companies and individuals are unaware of the informal work division. At
least there is a bigger chance the division will decrease if underrepresented groups are present
then if they are not. Many employers have some kind of theoretical knowledge about
legislation concerning discrimination when hiring and dealing with the employees, especially
public authorities and governmental units are trying to hire underrepresented groups as
women at male dominated jobs. The management often give directions to consider pluralism
when hiring or reorganising.191
This is partly a result of a political strategy which had the
effect of loosening the institutional knots a bit. The employers follow the legislation and do it
voluntary to be an attractive work place for the employees and this way equality has become
institutionalised.192
If elements that differ a bit are introduced, it might be easier to introduce
even more, to the work place or the institution, alien elements.
Morhed and the Reinfeldt government are not too far apart in their analysis of equality at the
labour market, at least not in the guiding policy documents. In the policy document,
Regeringens skrivelse 2008/09 198, they are mentioning discriminating discourses and norms,
which is in line with Morhed's sociological approach. Although, the government with all its
units consists of a lot of individuals with different perceptions of how this should be
implemented. A strategy is a guiding document but do not say anything about the actual
outcome of the policy. In the public inquiry SOU 2010:7, Anne-Marie Morhed identified the
tools the government has been using to tackle the inequality issue as unusable on this kind of
problem. She is content with the role of active measures are targeting structures instead of
individual cases. She is happy with the fact that the some parts of the policy has been
implemented so many employers offer individualised parental leave and recruiting
underrepresented gender.
The thing Morhed disapproves of the most is the government‟s methods to correct the
problem. She is criticising the focus on wage mapping and other targets for politics as being
atomistic, unrelated and short term with too much focus on the formal and not the informal
gender segregation. The segregation problem is one with deep historical roots and will not be
changed easily since the male oriented way of thinking has been institutionalised in most
institutions. She claims the problem will not be fixed without a more overarching strategy and
she is discontent with the lack of evaluation from the government of its own politics,
discrimination issues are not treated as seriously as they should be.193
She presents a more
unified strategy, although Morhed's inquiry assignment did not leave enough space for long
term commitments to a policy and neither does politics. The mandate is for four years only
190
SOU 2010:7 p.166 191
Ibid p.93 192
Ibid p.46 193
Ibid p.44
32
and long term policies cannot easily be passed and implemented since they might be changed
with a new government. The segregation problem needs more long term commitments.
4.3 Is political change possible?
Even if the Regulationist school and the flexible specialisation theory differ in many ways,
both are influenced by historical institutionalism. They have similar ways of analysing the
industrial development even if they are using different expressions, Piore and Sabel are
talking about industrial divides and the Regulationists about regime of accumulations, but
both are trying to illustrate a kind of industrial paradigm shift. Both approaches acknowledge
the external shocks as a way of shaping new production policies and in later material both
schools are talking about industrial divides as the point where institutions break down and
new ones are created. At these kinds of divides, the politicians and other institutional
designers have the chance to incorporate new aspects, such as gender perspectives. They have
in common their positive attitude to the possibilities the Post-Fordist flexible production can
offer to the employees, even if Lipitez are a bit more pessimist when it comes to actual
outcome. Piore and Sabel are focusing on the problem of under stimulated workers while
Lipietz are focusing more on global injustice.
The flexible specialisation theory is very positive to a more pluralistic labour market where
they support the idea of small companies competing on a free market. This way innovation
and economic growth will be created. They also talk about how important it is with a flat
work hierarchy so the employees are equals. What they lack is the whole picture, as in
including plurality within companies and that women too could be included in the whole
equal organisation, an aspect that are absent in Piore and Sabel's text. The Regulationist
school is a bit better, since they seem to accept the fact that women exist at the labour market
and that they do have a subordinated position. The subordination is not necessary for the
economic system to function and the Regulationists claim that the equality issue should be
incorporated better at the next industrial divide before the new regime of accumulation has
been institutionalised.
If you ask the supporters of the flexible specialisation theory, and some from the Regulationist
school, the political changes initiated at times of stability are affectless. The institutional
designers have to wait for shocks as the financial crises in 2008 or the one in the early 1990's
and create something new at these times. Another approach could be that the politicians
themselves create the shock by reforming institutions even in times of stability to get the
required change. One example is the reformation of the institution of the equality ombudsman
that the government decided to change to a discrimination ombudsman, the content of the
institutions was modified in this change even if a lot of traits remain the same. From this
aspect, it is right to change institutions since it leaves space for improving issues that has not
got the right treatment in the old institution and that this kind of institutional change should be
encouraged.
According to sociological institutionalism, the segregation problem should be seen as a
discourse that needs constant attention for long term change. Institution will not be changed
by shocks; change is something that comes slowly by constant awareness because that
discrimination recreates itself without the awareness. That is why Morhed presents
suggestions as active measures that will create dialogue and awareness which will in turn lead
to long term commitments even if the political time span is limited.
33
Historical and sociological institutionalisms can complement each other, even if their
perceptions of how institutions function and change differ. If the discrimination issues are
present only at times of shock, then they are likely be forgotten or to get a low priority when
the time of change arrives. Politicians, recruiters and others need to be constantly reminded to
not forget discrimination; legislation about wage mapping might not be the most efficient but
it is a reminder that these issues need attention. At the same time, the very nature of
institutions is conservative and serves to preserve a certain way of thinking. Individuals make
decisions given the alternatives existing within the institutional constraints. As it is now, the
institutions do not encourage behaviour that is profitable for the collective. Still, institutions
are necessary to make sense of social interaction and for society to function. What is needed
is an institutional change, but they will not change if the members do not make an effort to
move the institution in a certain direction. Maybe it does not matter if the change is along the
same path or if the path does not exist as long as individuals together can move institutions in
a more equal direction.
According to rational choice institutionalism, there are plenty of gains from a more equal
labour market. On a macroeconomic level, there are visible costs for the gender segregation.
Gender specific job definitions is making matching more difficult so it is harder to find the
right skills to the right position which will keep people in unemployment and this will limit
economic growth. The employers will not get the best competence, even if they think they do
just because they cannot see beyond their own prejudice.194
So far, women's experiences have
not been used in the way they can be used and women are a resource that can contribute with
development to the organisation, come up with new ideas for improvement and make the
work more democratic. In the traditional work hierarchy, the competence at the bottom is not
being used as it could which makes ideas of improvements go lost. Changing the system
might lead to an improvement in women's health which will lower the cost for sick leave and
early retirement.195
Here, the criticism of the rational choice approach comes in. The
institutions do not change as quickly as they claim and that is why the segregation still exists
even if there are so many reasons why a change would be profitable.
Even if it might seem hopeless, there are some light in times of despair. According to Lipietz,
there are no mechanisms making it obligatory for someone to be poor, the industry will work
even without workers in the periphery or regions so prosperity can be spread. If people from
different disciplines are co-operating, it is possible to create a more fair economic order.196
5. Conclusions
There are many reasons why a more equal labour market would be more profitable, still there
is little change. Profitability and efficiency do not explain everything, the answer has to be
sought in institutionalisms and their explanation of the conservative character of institutions,
this will help us understand why change is coming slowly. Institutions contain norms and
prejudice, things that make it easier to observe, categorise and analyse the world. It would be
quite easy to blame the problems on the institutions as they do influence discriminating
norms; but it would not be possible to abolish all institutions, not even parts of them since
they make social interaction possible.
194
SOU 2004:43 p.21-22 195
Drejhammar 2001 p.154 196
Lipietz 1987 p.189
34
It should ideally be in everyone's interest to achieve a better functioning society where
perceptions of gender should not have such limiting effects on individuals. Also it would
increase innovation since new experiences contribute with new perspectives and ideas which
would have a positive effect on economic growth. Unfortunately, there is a paradox where the
direct economical gains for parts of the population are working in the other direction. The
institutional system is benefiting some interests and the actors with these particular interests
are trying to preserve their privileged position. The proponents of equality are being opposed
by these interests which make it difficult to fight segregation and discrimination. The
argument about every person‟s equal value can be quite affectless when economic interests
are threatened.
However, the problem does not lie just in the interest of a few privileged groups. There is a
wide spread notion at many work places in Sweden that they do not have segregation,
therefore there is no need to work with equality issues and equality plans. The informal work
division is invisible since it has become routine and is not questioned. These perceptions are a
part of the institutions informal structures and limit the chance of improvement. The
government has been working with the equality issues and no matter if you approve or
disapprove of the measures; there is awareness of these issues at the labour market. Even if
segregation becomes more hidden as a result of the policy, at least the issues have been raised.
There are differences between good and bad suggestions of how to improve equality and the
outcome might be more or less efficient, but the most important thing is to create constant
awareness of the segregation problem. The concrete suggestions in the policy might not be as
important as the fact that the policy exists and is used as a constant reminder. But then, of
course, the government will have more credibility among the companies that are the subjects
of the policy if the suggestions are reasonable. As it is now, the government‟s credibility can
be questioned as it cannot achieve internal equality as most ministers are men and they do not
use all the existing tools that has been proved affectful. The government‟s dedication to
achieve a more equal society might not be as strong as it claims, and this can be one of the
reasons why the policy failed.
Equality is not easy to achieve, if it was then we would probably be there already. No matter
how much activists are fighting to get a more equal society, it is very hard to change gender
segregation as history has shaped perceptions that are built in our institutions. A historical
perspective is necessary to understand how the gender differences appeared and why it is so
hard to change. Although, change is not impossible. Even if there are big differences between
the genders at work, things are better than they were fifty years ago since there has been
people struggling to achieve equality and the struggle has not been meaningless. Because of
the efforts of scientists and activists, individuals and companies are constantly reminded of
gender issues and the fact that segregation very much exists, this will very likely lead to a
slow change.
35
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